At the Training Ground, Kento Nanami was nearly out of cursed energy and could no longer reinforce his body. He stumbled and almost fell, but Sakurada Niji caught him.
"Nanami, don't push yourself too hard." Sakurada Niji slipped his shoulder under Kento Nanami's arm and supported him.
"Sorry. The targets you made were so easy to cut that I exhausted myself without noticing." Kento Nanami stopped trying to tough it out and leaned his weight on Sakurada Niji's shoulder, making a rare joke.
Sakurada Niji helped Kento Nanami off the field.
"Hey! Didn't we agree you'd only leave if you lost?" Naoya Zenin shouted at Sakurada Niji, who had already stepped off the field. He didn't understand why Sakurada Niji had withdrawn when he still looked perfectly fine.
After several fights, Sakurada Niji might have looked unruffled, but he was actually running low on cursed energy. Fixing Cursed Technique itself consumed an enormous amount, and his special spatial movement technique, Flash Walk, activated Fixing Cursed Technique repeatedly, making it extremely costly.
Then Sakurada Niji had created suitable "lines" to guide Kento Nanami's precise slashes, which had also consumed a great deal of cursed energy. At this point, Sakurada Niji had roughly forty percent of his reserves left.
"Naturally, you should be at your best when facing a powerful opponent. It's a matter of respect," Sakurada Niji replied to Naoya Zenin.
Yeah, right. Against Satoru's cheat of a technique, only a domain would work right now. With my current cursed energy, I could keep one up for four seconds at most, nowhere near enough to deal with him. And Geto could just keep summoning cursed spirits to wear me down from a distance. I'd have no choice but to wait until my cursed energy ran dry, and I can't beat him in close combat either...
After hearing Sakurada Niji's answer, Naoya Zenin immediately felt an inexplicable surge of pride in the strength of the powerful.
Powerful people respecting each other and giving everything they've got in a fight... That's so cool, the young Naoya Zenin thought.
"I see! So this is the unspoken understanding between the strong!" Naoya Zenin murmured, suddenly enlightened.
Little did he know that this was Sakurada Niji's scheme. He needed time to recover his cursed energy while Suguru Geto and Satoru Gojo fought a battle of attrition. In the end, Satoru Gojo would surely win thanks to his unfair Limitless and the Six Eyes, which let him use cursed energy without any waste. That way, Sakurada Niji would only have to fight Satoru Gojo once, avoiding a fight with Suguru Geto entirely.
"Young people really are so innocent." Sakurada Niji helped Kento Nanami to the rest area.
"Respecting the strong and all that-so cool! Right, Geto?" Satoru Gojo asked Suguru Geto with a "serious" expression.
"Mm-hmm... You're right." Suguru Geto looked down as he drank his beverage, responding absently without even turning his head.
"Say whatever you like. It's not as if you ever run out of cursed energy." Sakurada Niji rolled his eyes at Satoru Gojo, then closed them and began to rest.
"Hey, Satoru! It's your and Geto's turn to go out there!" Shoko urged from the sidelines, because Utahime was eagerly awaiting the two scumbags beating each other up.
"Tch... What a pain. We still have to fight each other. How's that any different from our usual training? Isn't there anyone in Kyoto who can put up a fight?" Satoru Gojo stood reluctantly and stretched.
"Come on, Satoru. Let's show them a fight between the strongest." Suguru Geto finished the last of his drink, stood up, and tossed the empty can into the trash.
The two walked onto the Training Ground together, while everyone outside eagerly watched the battle between the strongest unfold.
"Let's get this straight first: no killing special grade cursed spirits. Anything below grade one is fair game." Suguru Geto laid down the rules for Satoru Gojo. He didn't want the rare cursed spirits he had painstakingly collected to become Satoru Gojo's disposable toys.
"If I can tell them apart." Satoru Gojo didn't agree outright, offering only an ambiguous answer.
"Begin!" Masamichi Yaga called.
"Pew, pew!" Suguru Geto fired several low-level cursed spirits from his fingers toward Satoru Gojo, testing whether he had activated Limitless.
Sure enough, Satoru Gojo sidestepped the cursed spirits Suguru Geto had launched. He had switched off his fully automatic Limitless because he wanted a proper fight.
"Hey, hey! Are you going easy on me with attacks like that?" Satoru Gojo shouted at Suguru Geto.
Suguru Geto said nothing. He drew Playful Cloud from behind him and attacked Satoru Gojo.
"I seriously don't know how Geto learned to use that thing," Sakurada Niji remarked. To him, Playful Cloud was incredibly difficult to wield.
Suguru Geto swung the three-section-staff-shaped cursed tool, his fast, powerful attacks overwhelming Satoru Gojo and forcing him to dodge again and again. Suguru Geto smashed one crater after another into the Training Ground. Outside the field, Masamichi Yaga's eye kept twitching, but he ultimately held himself back.
"Hey! I paid for this training field! Could you take better care of it?" Satoru Gojo tried to "reason" with Suguru Geto while dodging his attacks.
"Then why don't you stop dodging?" Suguru Geto looked utterly puzzled. Satoru Gojo was the one dodging, so why was he blaming Suguru Geto for damaging the ground? Besides, Satoru Gojo usually caused far more destruction. Making him pay for the Training Ground hadn't been unfair in the slightest.
"Then I won't dodge." Satoru Gojo activated Limitless outright and blocked Suguru Geto's attack. He couldn't fight him without using his technique. Suguru Geto's close-combat skills were exceptional, second only to Toji's.
Once Suguru Geto noticed that Satoru Gojo had activated his technique, he immediately retreated, put away Playful Cloud, and summoned a cursed spirit.
It was a special grade cursed spirit Suguru Geto had subdued just that year. Capable of Domain Expansion, it was his decisive weapon against Satoru Gojo.
As the cursed spirit appeared, its domain expanded instantly. The scenery before Satoru Gojo became a sinister graveyard in a forest.
Then the cursed spirit uttered the word "Grave" in a strange voice, and Satoru Gojo was immediately sealed inside a coffin. The cursed spirit began counting down: "Three."
"A Domain Expansion? Looks like nothing good will happen when this cursed spirit finishes counting down." Satoru Gojo used his technique to break out of the coffin, and the countdown stopped as the coffin shattered.
Satoru Gojo took off his sunglasses and immediately began analyzing the cursed spirit before him.
"The technique within the domain is limited to a single target. When Grave is activated inside the domain, the target is restrained by a coffin that appears without warning, then buried underground beneath a gravestone. After a three-second countdown, the target contracts a disease and dies, unless they escape the grave before then."
The special grade disease cursed spirit, Smallpox Hag, was a curse born from humanity's fear of smallpox.
"An instant-death type, huh? Pretty scary." Satoru Gojo assessed the special grade cursed spirit before him in a casual tone.
"This still can't hold me, can it, Geto?" Satoru Gojo shouted into his surroundings. Suguru Geto suddenly appeared in front of him and swung the shaft of Playful Cloud at him.
Here's my chance. The domain has neutralized Satoru's Limitless. I can hurt him now, Suguru Geto thought.
Satoru Gojo teleported out of the way of Suguru Geto's attack, but the instant his feet touched the ground, he felt himself plummeting, as though a bottomless chasm lay beneath him. Reacting at once, he used his technique to hover in the air and steady himself.
Satoru Gojo glanced at the catfish below him with its mouth wide open. The Six Eyes instantly discerned the details of this special grade cursed spirit.
Another special grade cursed spirit. An illusion type. It won't trigger as long as I don't touch the ground.
"Grave. Three-" Satoru Gojo had barely steadied himself when the coffin created by Smallpox Hag's technique trapped him. He broke out instantly, only for Suguru Geto, who had been waiting for that moment, to strike him in the chest with Playful Cloud. With a tremendous crash, Satoru Gojo was sent flying backward.
"That actually hurt a little, Geto." Satoru Gojo rose from the rubble behind him. He had already healed his injuries with Reverse Cursed Technique while being thrown through the air.
"Looks like I'll have to destroy this domain." Satoru Gojo made a hand sign and began gathering cursed energy.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue. Cursed Technique Reversal: Red. And then, Purple-" After getting to his feet, Satoru Gojo unleashed Purple.
With a dazzling flash of violet light, Satoru Gojo shattered Smallpox Hag's domain. After destroying the domain, Purple's remaining force carved a path straight through the forest outside the training field.
"Tch..." Suguru Geto clicked his tongue in irritation, summoned Rainbow Dragon behind him, and climbed onto its back, flying straight into the air. Smallpox Hag could only expand its domain once a day. Without a domain, he couldn't bypass Limitless, so anything else he tried would be futile.
"Playing dirty now, are we?" Satoru Gojo muttered as he watched Suguru Geto riding Rainbow Dragon around the sky.
Then Satoru Gojo used his technique to rise into the sky and began firing small instances of Blue into the air. Suguru Geto kept dodging on Rainbow Dragon, but before long, he realized that the earlier instances of Blue hadn't disappeared. Instead, they continued orbiting him. By the time he caught on, Blue had already surrounded him.
"It's something I developed recently. These aren't just ordinary instances of Blue. I call it Orbiting Stars. Any target I've touched becomes a gravitational point that attracts Blue. Every Blue I release will automatically track the target I've touched." Satoru Gojo put his sunglasses back on, as though the fight were already over.
This guy actually developed a new move?! Suguru Geto's face was full of shock. He couldn't imagine Satoru Gojo doing anything other than coasting on what he already had.
Did he mark me when I hit him with Playful Cloud?! Suguru Geto recalled striking Satoru Gojo inside the domain earlier.
"Blue is a force of attraction. Now that I've marked you, you'll generate an attractive force too. You'll attract them, and they'll attract you." Satoru Gojo began explaining the principles behind his new move.
"The instances of Blue in different positions will attract you while being attracted to you. Of course, your 'attraction' is stronger than these small instances of Blue, so right now you're drawing them toward you. Once Orbiting Stars surrounds you, there's no escaping."
"And I've got a backup plan too. Even if you block Blue, I can use Red directly and guide it with Blue's gravitational pull, ultimately creating Purple at the target point." Satoru Gojo added this with a serious expression.
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